


Crocheting pattern

by UlsPi



Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Curse Breaking, F/M, Fairy Tale Curses, M/M, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:54:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26570989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UlsPi/pseuds/UlsPi
Summary: After Geralt is cursed, Jaskier sets out to save him.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg
Comments: 5
Kudos: 103





	Crocheting pattern

**Author's Note:**

> This was born out of my inability to learn how to crochet... Really.

King Vesemir didn't have any children, so when the time came and he began to feel the weight of his years, so to speak, he trusted the Destiny to guide him which led to him finding a child abandoned by the road by which the king had been traveling to visit one of his vassals. 

Vesemir named the child Geralt - the boy had been too shocked to speak to his rescuer. 

Within a few months Geralt made peace with the fact that he had been abandoned by his mother and stopped sobbing in his sleep. Vesemir loved him dearly, but understood that he had to be poor company for the boy, so he made sure Geralt trained with two young guards of Vesemir's, Eskel and Lambert, and Geralt became fast friends with them. 

Vesemir was worried, however, about Geralt's propensity to hide his feelings. A good king had to feel for his subjects. He knew that Geralt felt deeply but he was ashamed of showing it and Vesemir wanted to take care of that, so when he saw a noble family of Lettenhove dismiss and push away their heir, he demanded the boy to come and live in his palace and be a friend to Geralt.

It wasn't just the misery of the boy that had attracted Vesemir's attention - it was the boy's unashamed sensibility. Young Julian seemed to be trembling in the air with how much he felt - and he knew how to turn his pain and elation into music, into sweet ballads, said talent being the main reason for the treatment the boy had got from his family.

Predictably, Geralt was both instantly smitten and endlessly irritated with the boy, but, to Vesemir's delight, Julian, who insisted on being called Jaskier, never budged.  _ Endure  _ wasn't even the right word for Jaskier's attitude towards Geralt. Jaskier laughed at Geralt's grumpiness, was persistent in his cheerfulness, mocked Geralt's constant frown and the vocabulary of but two words. 

It was Jaskier who discovered that Geralt was dyslexic, and he gave Vesemir  _ a talk _ which made Vesemir think that Jaskier himself might have been a better monarch: he snarled and raged at the king, cursed artfully and straightforwardly blamed Vesemir for Geralt's misery. 

"So… what would you have me do?" Vesemir asked, trying his best to hide his giddiness. 

"Oh, you care too much for him, I always knew it!" Jaskier exclaimed. Vesemir felt instantly uncomfortable - that sensitive boy with his lute and fancy words saw everyone too well.

"Well, that's why I'm asking you what I should do!" Vesemir snapped. He could be frightful, but Jaskier wasn't someone to be easily scared. Perhaps he didn't have the attention span to be scared… But all the same, Vesemir wanted to know his opinion.

"Send away all those silly tutors. He needs someone calm and tolerant. Someone who can see… the forest for the trees. I'll read to him and write for him." Jaskier looked up at the king defiantly. 

"So be it," Vesemir replied, and so it was. Jaskier read to Geralt, chased him down with his books and stories and songs, careless about all the laughs he got from Eskel and Lambert who couldn't help stopping mocking the younger boy, since he proved to be adamant, unbreakable, entirely lacking in shame and unafraid of embarrassment. 

"You're to be the king," Jaskier would say to Geralt. "Forget about the fanciness of the language, of the ability to convince and deceive! There are stories you need to know to be able to become a just ruler!"

Geralt would run away and try to hide - but Jaskier would always find him, would pester and persist and work with Geralt's tutors to adapt the curriculum to the needs and abilities of the young prince. 

Geralt turned gray in his teenage years, and his brown eyes changed overnight into cat-like yellow. Jaskier ignored it. He might have mentioned that Geralt had become more handsome, but he did so under his breath. 

Vesemir knew that Geralt had never hidden from Jaskier well enough. Vesemir knew that Geralt wanted to be found - and relied on Jaskier to always find him. The king enjoyed watching both boys dancing around each other, although it was Geralt who did most of the dancing - Jaskier would have admitted to being utterly besotted with Geralt, had anyone cared to ask, and Geralt would die many times for the bard. 

During one of their adventures, they were captured by a rogue band of elves. Geralt negotiated peace with them and then… then he persuaded their captors to gift Jaskier with a new lute. Upon their return Vesemir made Jaskier Geralt's consort. 

"You don't need to get married," he explained to the boys. Geralt paled and Jaskier blushed at that. "But I think you two balance each other very well, and it benefits the kingdom…"

"The kingdom…" Jaskier smirked.

"Balance," Geralt chuckled. Neither seemed to believe in Vesemir's judgement. 

They, however, enthusiastically accepted to travel to the far ends of the kingdom on various errands. Jaskier, as it turned out, had a tremendous talent for getting into trouble, while Geralt developed a corresponding talent for getting Jaskier out of trouble, for Geralt might have been grumpy and taciturn, but he'd never let any harm to come to his loyal and gentle friend. 

Being the one to check the waters before stepping into them and never allowing a notion that there might be no water at all, Geralt once told Jaskier that their status as consorts shouldn't hold Jaskier back. Jaskier made one of his peculiar faces which could be interpreted as either bitter or mischievous, and went on a lascivious spree, which of course led to more instances of Geralt having to save his companion. 

During one of those errands Vesemir would send them on, Geralt became so angry with Jaskier for waxing poetic about some lady love of his, that he cursed Jaskier. They had found a djinn and Jaskier wanted to use his wishes to get rid of every hated rival of his, be it love or poetry, and Geralt, to spite him, let the djinn out first… Geralt hated telling that story. It featured Jaskier almost dying and Geralt meeting lady Yennefer, a powerful and free-spirited sorceress who had apparently captured Geralt's heart. 

Geralt announced that he had promised himself to lady Yennefer which led to several seemingly unrelated occasions. 

First, Jaskier's talent for poetry blossomed into something formidable. He'd enchant the court with his singing, with his wistful ballads of heartbreak and idiocy. 

Second, lady Yennefer was very peculiarly reluctant to marry Geralt. In her opinion, something was very wrong about their affair. 

Third, Geralt grew angrier and more irritable.

In the end it turned out that when lady Yennefer helped Jaskier and saved him from certain death, Geralt, scared and grieving, asked the djinn to bind him to the sorceress. The djinn played a cruel joke with all parties involved, so after a few months of torturous and passionate love both Geralt and Yennefer came to an understanding: they didn't fit and didn't really like each other. There was mutual respect, to be sure, but nothing more than that. 

But while Yennefer took the whole thing quite well and not without humour, her guild decided that one of their members had been scorned. 

Geralt was cursed and turned into a wolf. In the ensuing chaos Geralt ran away. 

Jaskier followed him in the morning. 

***

Jaskier's position as Geralt's consort definitely helped secure his position as the most famous bard on the Continent, but the months of wandering proved that Jaskier had deserved his reputation. 

Jaskier would have given anything for so much recognition, but as of the moment, as it happened, he sought something else. 

In every tavern he sang in, he inquired about the white wolf. He listened to no warning or cautionary tale and kept trying to find his dear friend and his dear heart.

Jaskier had loved Geralt since the moment they met, and Jaskier had known that Geralt, being all handsome and brooding, had no need for romance, at least not at the moment, so Jaskier had learned to find joy and happiness in caring for his taciturn prince, his cantankerous darling. 

Actually there had been nothing to learn. Jaskier's love was fluid, flexible, changeable. He was an artist after all, he could adapt, he could change, he could live up to any expectation. 

He kept following Geralt but never managed to reach him. Jaskier decided he'd have to pay a visit to Yennefer. 

She seemed to be feeling a bit guilty, but Jaskier didn't care much for any of it. 

"Surely you must know which curse they used on him!" Jaskier begged. "Please… there must be a way to break the curse!"

"Jaskier…" Yennefer shook her head. "It's a true love's curse, that much I know."

"So… I need to find him and bring him over to you? As a wolf… alright." 

"Jaskier, don't be an idiot! The longer he stays a wolf, the foggier are his memories. Besides, I've never been his true love."

"There must be someone! Or there must be some other way!"

"Look at you," Yennefer cupped Jaskier's face. "So handsome, so lovely, so loyal… so lonely. Are you sure you're willing to help him? It might cost you everything…"

"There's no  _ everything  _ without Geralt," Jaskier replied firmly. Even if the prince hadn't loved him, Jaskier wanted to see him happy and healthy. Wanted to see him human. Wanted to hear… No, that way lay madness. 

"So…" Yennefer took a long look at Jaskier. "I can't break the curse, but I can… adjust it so that you can break it, but in order to do so, you'll have to sacrifice everything."

"No everything without Geralt," Jaskier repeated. "What should I do?"

"You'll stay silent for three years - no singing, no talking, nothing. No sound can escape your lips, no note can jump off your lute. You're to remain silent… and you're to crochet a shirt for Geralt."

Jaskier gasped. "I can't… can't crochet."

"You'll have to learn. Gather buttercups growing around abandoned houses, turn them into yarn and make a shirt for Geralt."

"Then I'll just need to find him and put it on him, right?" Jaskier laughed bitterly. 

"That's the only way. You can't say a word to anyone, bard, or it won't work."

Jaskier thanked her and abruptly left. 

Once he was out of the door, Yennefer burst out laughing. Tissaia, her mentoress, entered the room and shook her head. 

"That was cruel, Yennefer, even for you…" 

Yennefer sharply turned to Tissaia. "Not as cruel as your curse! The only thing he needs is to believe that what he's doing will help Geralt, and he has plenty of faith in that gloomy prince. You had no right and no reason to curse Geralt! I can't save him, but Jaskier can… if anyone, it's Jaskier," she added with a fond smile.

***

Jaskier returned to Vesemir. He had remained silent since he left Yennefer, but he did tell the king that he had to leave again and immediately; that he had only come back to store his lute safely in the palace, under Vesemir's care. He wrote a long letter which explained that he was grieving for his friend and wanted to wander, to travel and see all the places that reminded him of Geralt. 

Vesemir of course tried to ply the truth out of the bard, but Jaskier refused to give any other explanation. Instead, he asked for some food and money and left after but a few days at his home. 

The kingdom was grieving with him, but Jaskier had no time or strength for it, he had a curse to break. 

He faithfully gathered the buttercups and made yarn from them. He couldn't crochet for the life of him, but his life was of no importance, so he kept trying - and looking for the white wolf. 

A year passed. 

Jaskier learned to cast a chain but was still hopeless when it came to anything more complex. He couldn't even curse out loud!

Despite it all, he didn't despair. He kept searching for the white wolf, following gossip and rumours, until one day he found him. 

The beast was gorgeous, all silver white and fur and graceful movements and clever eyes. Oh, how he wished to greet his friend and ramble on about his adventures and curse Geralt anew for leaving so suddenly, for denying Jaskier and Vesemir any opportunity to help him. 

Geralt let Jaskier rub his belly and scratch behind his ears. Jaskier held him and nuzzled him, oblivious to the nasty smells and stains. 

The wolf seemed to be worried about Jaskier's silence, but Jaskier shook his head, and Geralt could see that it wasn't the topic Jaskier was eager to address, so he just followed Jaskier around, just like Jaskier had followed him. 

Jaskier washed his wolf in the clearest stream he could find. There were chamomile and lavender in his bag, and Jaskier saw nothing wrong about taking care of a wolf. 

Geralt expected Jaskier to fall asleep at night, but the bard pulled out something from his bag and went on… crocheting? Geralt, who had curled around Jaskier to keep him warm, watched the bard work with curiosity and… and…

Care. 

Jaskier had witnessed Geralt caring about someone, about a lot of things, actually, but he had never seen his oldest friend being so tenderly concerned. He wanted to ask Geralt what or who had made him so concerned… He wanted it to be him, oh he wanted to be cared for so much… 

He had a shirt to figure out, so he concentrated on that. 

Geralt dozed off with his head in Jaskier's lap, the yarn tickling his nose and the sound of Jaskier's breath calming and grounding him. He'd been lonely and lost, ashamed of himself… He had run away from everyone and everything, yet Jaskier found him… 

Geralt raised his head deep in the night and saw Jaskier falling asleep over his peculiar work. Why was he crocheting? Why was he so silent? Where was his lute, his beaming smile, his maddening chatter?

He followed Jaskier and nudged at him until Jaskier got the hint and sat on Geralt's back, never leaving his work, his strange yarn, smelling of spring and yellow flowers and an unbreakable promise. 

One day, when they stopped by a small spring, Jaskier smiled and wrote in the wet sand,  _ I missed you my dear heart, you really didn't need to run away. _ Jaskier booped Geralt's muzzle. Geralt felt too fond and too exasperated, so his own nuzzle pushed the bard into the water. Jaskier spat and laughed quietly - and it tugged at Geralt's heart, how his noisy, loud, boisterous bard had turned into a silent, careful man… Geralt kept him warm every night, during each storm. His curse became bearable, enjoyable even, on some days. They traveled together, slept together, touched more each day. Geralt hadn't been able to be more forward with Jaskier as a man, but as a wolf… As a wolf he could nuzzle and push and carry Jaskier. Could be his friend, his keeper, had no need to be ashamed of his awkwardness and monosyllabic replies. Jaskier scratched and massaged him, washed him carefully, just as he had been doing before the curse. 

Sometimes Jaskier looked him in the eyes, long and longing, and Geralt wanted to see his dearest friend careless and grinning again, but he couldn't take his eyes off of Jaskier's bright blue ones. 

Jaskier's work began to take a form - Geralt could see that it was a shirt. 

They kept wandering through the woods, Geralt hunting for both of them and Jaskier waiting for his companion by the fire and taking care of Geralt's wounds and matted fur. 

***

It had been two years since Geralt was turned into a wolf when Jaskier finally finished the shirt and helped Geralt into it. Geralt didn't understand what it was for, but he wanted to please Jaskier, so he obligingly moved and shifted to try on Jaskier's work… 

Jaskier's face fell. Geralt looked at himself. 

"Love… come back to me, love," Jaskier whispered. "I miss you so much, my dearest, most beloved prince… Come back to me!" Jaskier fell on his knees and, covering his face, started to cry, desperate and hopeless. 

Geralt was so shocked to hear Jaskier's voice again that he hadn't paid attention to anything else until Jaskier's sobs turned louder. Geralt moved to him, seeking to comfort and calm him - and then saw that he was reaching out to Jaskier with a hand… He had his hands back, and his legs and body and head… He was wearing a strange shirt that smelled of grass and spring and buttercups. 

"Jask…" Geralt called, unused to the sound of his own voice. "Jask…"

Jaskier looked up - and smiled. It was so bright Geralt had to look away, except… he couldn't, drawn to Jaskier's lips and his sunlit demeanour. He sat next to his truest friend and held him. 

"So good to have hands, Jask, and arms… and… and everything."

"You're so eloquent!" Jaskier exclaimed rather stupidly, although no one could blame him for it, since he hadn't heard a word from Geralt for two years. 

"Knew I had it in me," Geralt replied, kissing the top of Jaskier's head. 

"I never doubted you either," Jaskier lied with a happy smile.

"Liar."

"Love you."


End file.
